Jared Pope is the CEO and founder of Work Shield. While practicing law focused on human resources, ERISA, benefits, and employment matters, Jared realized industry-standard practices and the “system” for managing workplace harassment and discrimination were broken. Despite using outside reporting platforms, internal incident investigations meant employees were not reporting incidents due to fear of retaliation, and employers were not protecting their culture or themselves from the risk of legal action. Always ready for a challenge, Jared decided to make the system better, where voices are truly heard and incidents have a clear path to resolution. Jared created Work Shield – the first and only start-to-finish workplace harassment and discrimination solution and technology platform that gives employees a real voice, protects and ensures a safe workplace culture, and removes employer liability – all at the same time
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Elon Musk
- Sara Blakely
- Whitney Wolfe Herd Founder and CEO of Bumble
When business started difficulties overcame:
“besides making sure the idea worked was funding it. I’ve started some other companies before Work Shield and we often took in capital but it wasn’t the right time. And so when the idea of Work Shield and we were starting work shield I told myself hey I know it’s going to be tough, we are going to pay for Work Shield ourselves, we are going to fund it as long as we can before we raise capital. And I remember the exact moment from my lessons learned”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- The Greatest Generation Book by Tom Brokaw
Also mentioned:
- Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. Book by Brené Brown
- Bible
Favourite Quote:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” Teddy Roosevelt
Recommended Online Resources:
- LinkedIn is a business and employment-oriented service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Founded on December 28, 2002, and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking, including employers posting jobs and job seekers posting their CVs.
- Podcasts
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“trust your gut and if you believe in yourself you have got to trust your gut. I assume any entrepreneur doesn’t start company because they don’t believe in themselves it’s because they do and you have to remember you have an idea and it’s okay that if it doesn’t work let the market tell you what’s good about it, what’s wrong about it, how do you need to tweak it, what’s the next iteration. But trust your gut. And no one is going to know your product better than you… And you can learn more from other people and adapt it to your knowledge but there is this intuitiveness of a gut check. And trust your gut, go with your gut and bet on yourself”…[Listen for More]
More About Jared Pope:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“If you’re too comfortable, it’s time to move on. Terrified of what’s next? You’re on the right track.” Susan Fales-Hill
Other Quotes From the Chat with Jared Pope:
- “it goes back to hiring, making sure that you hire the right people and you trust your gut. I would have waited a little longer to hire more of the right individuals for our growth that we needed versus hey we’ve just got to get someone in really fast and help us grow and then before you know it it’s six months down the road and you are back at square one. Versus if you are just waited a couple of months and hired the right person for that specific growth role, we would be a lot further along than six months down the road. And so, I wish I would have done that little bit different”
- “number one got to believe in yourself. Believe in yourself, believe in yourself, believe in yourself, believe in yourself. And if you can’t do that, if you can’t look in the mirror every morning and say hey, I am going to do this… And look there are days when it is hard, it’s not going to be easy but you have to be able to tap in and say I believe in me, I know I can do this and I know I am going to come work hard and I am going to do everything I can to control what I can control. And if you can do that on a daily basis…”
- “From chaos becomes opportunity”
- “there is a roadmap, there is a roadmap for success, there is a roadmap for don’t feel pity on yourself… Yes, it’s okay to take one day and say yes today sucks, I get it. But you wake up, the sunrises, you put your shoes back on and you get back out there and you just keep going”
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